Toyota Motor said Tuesday it would invest 600 million dollars and add 400 jobs at a US plant, less than 20 days after then-president-elect Donald Trump threatened the Japanese carmaker with a border tax if it went ahead with plans to build a new factory in Mexico. The move is part of Toyota's localization strategy, the carmaker said, two weeks after it announced it would spend 10 billion dollars on capital investments in the United States over the next five years. "This announcement shows Toyota's commitment to continued US investment," it said in a statement, without referring to President Trump. The investment will be used for retooling, new equipment and advanced technologies at its Indiana plant to produce an additional 40,000 Highlander SUVs annually, the carmaker said. Production is scheduled to start in late 2019. The plant manufactured more than 400,000 vehicles last year and Toyota has created 5,300 jobs in the state of Indiana, where Vice President Mike Pence served as governor. Toyota president Akio Toyoda met Pence in Washington on January 10. Trump said on Twitter in early January, "Toyota Motor said will build a new plant in Baja, Mexico, to build Corolla cars for U.S. NO WAY! Build plant in U.S. or pay big border tax".
